Agworld Job Ad by an Agworld Dev

We're exploding like an exploding thing and we need some help!

TLDR

I'm a developer for Agworld; If you're a high quality web or mobile developer then get in contact with me (@ozzyaaron). Maybe you'll get to work with other high quality devs in a large exciting project as we transition the product in a number of cool ways. The bosses are cool and have a very strong idea of our product. We have work coming out of our ears, but we aren't reducing our hiring bar. We believe in hiring top notch people and doing the job right. Hopefully you'll apply.

The Rest

It's an exciting time to be a dev at Agworld ...

We're expanding internationally

We're taking the first steps from monolithic app to SOA

We're heavily investing in our testing knowledge and infrastructure

We're trialing new rubies (jRuby) - think 1.9.3 is faster than REE? Try it on a large app and get back to me...

We're completely revamping the UI

We're honing our Agile process as we go

We're building tools for farmers, suppliers and agricultural scientists that they've never dreamed of with access to data they've never had

Stuff I'm forgetting ...

Agworld is looking for developers. As with any smart tech companies that are looking to recruit we aren't necessarily looking for people already working in the technologies we're using. We're looking for smart, dedicated, team players with a thirst for knowledge and a desire to have an impact!

What're We Specifically Looking For ?

Mobile Developers (iOS preferred)

Web Developers (Ruby on Rails or MVC preferred)

We're of the firm belief it's more important to be able to formulate and answer than to know the answer. We're not particularly fussed which tech you've worked with before as long as you work well in a team and have a tremendous thirst for knowledge and desire to better yourself and a team.

What It's Like To Work for Agworld ?

Do you like to make a high quality product? So do I. For that reason I reckon I'll be at Agworld for a while. The desire for a sustainable, high quality and highly usable product is something you'll feel runs throughout the entire business.

The People

I've worked in privately owned retail, a public startup and a privately owned Rails consultancy and I've never had bosses that worked this hard. No kidding.

Our CTO is very hands on in a good way - if he isn't in meetings then he's either committing code or reviewing code in pull requests or the commit log. The CEO is a great guy and fun to talk with about basically anything really. The best thing about the business is that they know what they do and don't want to do with the product but as a dev I get a very highly valued input too.

Your fellow devs are of course jugglers, philosophers and generally good looking people :) Honestly though we care about what we do and across the board they are humble yet highly intelligent and highly opinionated people. I think for the right person you'll really enjoy working with us.

The Work

I can only comment for myself but it's fun! I feel like in a team of 10 I get to have a real impact every day and on a long term scale. If I have an idea I feel pretty free to run with it, if I want to do something to better our processes then I can get the team on board pretty easily.

Personally in the last six months I've been able to :

Convert our Test::Unit and Machinist suite to RSpec and Factory Girl

Add a Jenkins CI server that integrates with our team chat system

Build a mighty set of factories - maybe not something to be proud of :P

Win over the team and business on the virtues of automated testing

Try out DCI (Data Context Interaction) in a feature

Win over a few of the devs to give DCI and large scaled PORO a try

... all whilst doing the usual tasks of a developer. I didn't need to ask 'permission' to do any of this (except for convert the suite) I just needed to be able to convince the dev team. As long as I didn't break other people's stuff and was getting my feature and maintenance work done it was fine.

If you like to make a difference, it's a great place to do that. The code is owned (sometimes aggressively :P) by the devs at Agworld and so if you can win over the team that we should be writing everything in Python (or more likely a service in language Y) then we'll do it. If you think methods in a file should be in some sort of order (and we've had that discussion) then fight for it - though you may not win. Believe me, if the CTO has an idea on how something is to be done he still has to win over the devs for most technical decisions.

Look to be honest the work is fun. The domain (Agriculture) is HUGE! Agworld employs people directly out of the industry into sales and support so the knowledge there is pretty awesome when it comes to how Ag works as a business through to the soil science behind growing a potato. I've had a lot of my preconceptions turned on their head. The size of the domain though means we're kind of just starting and there is a whole pile of the Ag world that we haven't even touched - yet. That's what I'm most excited about from a non technical point of view.

From a technical point of view it's an exciting time; we're kind of at an inflection point. A few of the lead devs want to start the transition from a monolithic application to a service oriented design and we've got the go ahead from the business not long ago to start that transition. I think as a dev you're excited by change and new tech and doing things you've never done before so I think it goes without saying you'll be joining at a time where you'll be challenged, things are changing and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.

Enough With The Novel

In the end I would recommend a friend to work here without hesitation. I think that's a pretty compelling point. My fellow devs are incredibly smart people that challenge me on a daily basis. The domain is huge and lacking in technical solutions throughout - it's ripe for developers to look at and create scalable solutions to old problems. The team at Agworld including the business owners are friendly, smart and hard working people. The owners are highly appreciative and open with praise for good people.